diff --git a/README.markdown b/README.markdown
index eb155b8..2696a20 100644
--- a/README.markdown
+++ b/README.markdown
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ Homebrew installation is not supported. If you have issues with homebrew-install
 
 **Note:** Git versions before v1.7 may face a problem of cloning nvm source from GitHub via https protocol, and there is also different behavior of git before v1.6, so the minimum required git version is v1.7.0 and we recommend v1.7.9.5 as it's the default version of the widely used Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. If you are interested in the problem we mentioned here, please refer to GitHub's [HTTPS cloning errors](https://help.github.com/articles/https-cloning-errors/) article.
 
+**Note:** `nvm` uses `curl` with the `--compressed` option which was introduced on September 3rd, 2002([curl/curl@64bbe9d](https://github.com/curl/curl/commit/64bbe9dfafc6693a96b742f3133c636385835a19)). It's unlikely, but if you have `curl` compiled without that feature, `nvm` may not be able to install or list remote `node` versions. Please file an issue if your `curl` does not work with `--compressed` (and you didn't explicitly compile `curl` to not have compression support).
+
 ### Install script
 
 To install or update nvm, you can use the [install script][2] using cURL:
diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index 6c1fbfe..790bde5 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -62,11 +62,12 @@ nvm_node_version() {
 
 nvm_download() {
   if nvm_has "curl"; then
-    curl -q "$@"
+    curl --compressed -q "$@"
   elif nvm_has "wget"; then
     # Emulate curl with wget
     ARGS=$(echo "$*" | command sed -e 's/--progress-bar /--progress=bar /' \
                            -e 's/-L //' \
+                           -e 's/--compressed //' \
                            -e 's/-I /--server-response /' \
                            -e 's/-s /-q /' \
                            -e 's/-o /-O /' \
diff --git a/nvm.sh b/nvm.sh
index 94376b7..67ef6df 100644
--- a/nvm.sh
+++ b/nvm.sh
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ nvm_has_colors() {
 nvm_get_latest() {
   local NVM_LATEST_URL
   if nvm_has "curl"; then
-    NVM_LATEST_URL="$(curl -q -w "%{url_effective}\n" -L -s -S http://latest.nvm.sh -o /dev/null)"
+    NVM_LATEST_URL="$(curl --compressed -q -w "%{url_effective}\n" -L -s -S http://latest.nvm.sh -o /dev/null)"
   elif nvm_has "wget"; then
     NVM_LATEST_URL="$(wget http://latest.nvm.sh --server-response -O /dev/null 2>&1 | command awk '/^  Location: /{DEST=$2} END{ print DEST }')"
   else
@@ -76,10 +76,11 @@ nvm_get_latest() {
 
 nvm_download() {
   if nvm_has "curl"; then
-    curl -q "$@"
+    curl --compressed -q "$@"
   elif nvm_has "wget"; then
     # Emulate curl with wget
     ARGS=$(nvm_echo "$@" | command sed -e 's/--progress-bar /--progress=bar /' \
+                           -e 's/--compressed //' \
                            -e 's/-L //' \
                            -e 's/-I /--server-response /' \
                            -e 's/-s /-q /' \
diff --git a/test/slow/nvm_get_latest/nvm_get_latest b/test/slow/nvm_get_latest/nvm_get_latest
index 2bdcbad..9f2f53c 100755
--- a/test/slow/nvm_get_latest/nvm_get_latest
+++ b/test/slow/nvm_get_latest/nvm_get_latest
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ cleanup() {
 
 EXPECTED_VERSION="v12.3.456"
 URL="https://github.com/creationix/nvm/releases/tag/$EXPECTED_VERSION"
-EXPECTED_CURL_ARGS="-q -w %{url_effective}\n -L -s -S http://latest.nvm.sh -o /dev/null"
+EXPECTED_CURL_ARGS="--compressed -q -w %{url_effective}\n -L -s -S http://latest.nvm.sh -o /dev/null"
 EXPECTED_WGET_ARGS="http://latest.nvm.sh --server-response -O /dev/null"
 
 curl() {